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“That’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up” – Delirium, Lauren Oliver.

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*

MINJUN

I woke up on the sofa, in the same position. My neck hurt. I stood up and stretched yawning. My eyes burned. I must have cried.

I dragged myself in the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were red and puffy. I looked disgusting and worn out. I splashed cold water on my face multiple times. I felt so weak for some reason. I wanted to curl up on my bed and sleep. My head ached. I rubbed my eyes with my hands.

So tiring.

I heard the faint sound of my phone ringing. I walked out and grabbed my phone, it was Wooyoung.

“Yeah?” I said yawning.

“Did you just wake up?”

“Yeah”

“Okay…Are you planning to go to work?”

“I don’t know. I’m not feeling good”

“What? You fell sick?”

“I don’t-” I frowned at the uneasy feeling in my stomach. I ran to the bathroom again and threw up everything I ate yesterday, which wasn’t much though.

I was lying down on my bed with a thermometer sticking out of my mouth. Wooyoung sat on my side looking at his watch, mentally counting down the seconds along with it. He removed the thermometer and his eyebrows furrowed looking at the temperature.

“101” he sighed.

“Why don’t you ever look at the expiry date of what you eat and drink?!” he screamed standing up.

“Don’t shout. My head is already paining”

“Then stop doing stupid things like this” he said unknowingly lowering his voice. He got up and left the room.

“I’m throwing away all your expired food” he shouted from the kitchen.

I heard him but didn’t respond.

“Do you even eat at your house? There’s hardly anything which is not expired!” he shouted after a few minutes.

And then he barged into the room glaring at me with a can of expired in his hand.

“Are you going to stay?” I asked

“No, I have some work”

“Meeting with Junho?”

He looked at me apologetically. I knew he didn’t have anything to say. I couldn’t control who he met and who he had meals with. It was his choice.

“Go. It’s okay” I said turning to my side avoiding his apologetic look.

“Don’t act like a jealous girlfriend. I know you won’t believe me, but I’m doing this for you” he said.

Of course. Not even a bit of what he just said made any sense.

Realizing I wasn’t going to reply he left the room closing the door. And then he left my house with a huge cover filled with expired food.

JUNHO

I drove through other cars in the parking of the office. I generally avoided parking in between two cars but since this was the only one available, I parked my car there and entered the office scanning my new ID.

I replayed my conversation with Chansung yesterday.

Make eye contacts so it shows you want to talk to him. It was obvious he wouldn’t start talking to me right away. Conversations would start with work related topics, and then drift to personal matters provided we were alone, which hardly was ever the case, sadly. 

The lady who called the general managers out of the conference room yesterday, Sunmi, showed me my new office where a group of people were already waiting. They were supposed to work under me. There were 3 people, who bowed and introduced themselves to me. Jackson, Jinyoung and Suzy.

There was a huge table in the middle of the office where they put their laptops and a few magazines. It was the work table. There were small individual tables in the corners for us. I guessed nobody would really use them.

The next few hours went in explaining to them the structure of the hotel building and the rooms inside. A few phone calls were made to furniture houses to ask for prices and discounts.

They all seemed to be newly recruited since they were so enthusiastic. Generally, people lose enthusiasm in work within 2 years.

At lunchtime, I wandered around inside the office building. I hadn’t seen Minjun or Wooyoung yet. Were they really busy? Just then, I saw Wooyoung come out of a room holding a few magazines in his hand. He looked up and smiled as he spotted me from a distance. I smiled back and waved at him.

“How’s first day of work?” he asked walking towards me.

“Interesting. I like it”

“Your subordinates? Are they good?”

“Yeah, they’re amazing. Their ideas are pretty cool. Ii thought they’d just do and listen to what I’d say, but they’re giving inputs which is rare for newly recruited designers”

“That’s great. Look at this” he said giving me the magazines.

“This isn’t our company” I said looking at the logos on the magazines.

“Yeah. We have to be better than them. That’s why Minjun asked me to give them to you. So you do better than them”

“Minjun is inside?” I asked looking at the glass room which was covered with blinds from inside.

“No. His secretary gave it to me. That’s his secretary’s office.” he said grinning.

“Oh okay” I said. I sounded disappointed. I was.

“So just go through them. By the way, I’m going to take the pics of the interior design you do. So do well. Indirectly my photography will stand out”

I chuckl